Tired of holiday peace, love and understanding? So was an editor at the Los Angeles Times, who in the days leading up to Christmas 1924, ran an article that asked "What Will Happen When ‘Science' Perfects the Art of War?"

Grandma's fruitcake may have been lethal in its own special way, but it paled in comparison to the horrors of the "Battle of the Centuries" to come:

Death swifter than light, silent and stealthy as the shadow of a thought, will ride on the wings of radio to destroy nations in the space of a single breath. . . Imagine a fleet of battle planes circling, maneuvering, attacking or holding fire at the direction of minds hundreds, even thousands of miles away! Imagine the human eye endowed with a power of vision capable of spanning these thousands of miles to witness the lightning-like seep of this squadron . . . leaving in its wake a burnt and blackened desert, devoid of all life!

Among the weapons of the future predicted were:

Jets of water charged with electricity to kill all animal life with which they come in contact.